Gardening ExpressReviews 594

DIGUSTING COMPANY - If something doesn't show, there is no recourse
This is the 'live chat' (nb - it's not live chat, It says 'we'll get back to you' and then don't) message that I sent them on Friday after trying to contact them 4 times by email. Obviously still no response from them. My order was placed more then 2 months ago!
Online chat message to Gardening Express:
Order number *******
You're not even available in the middle of the day on live chat?
I've sent 4 emails through your contact us form in the last 2 months. I had 1 reply to the first email and nothing since. Order still not arrived. Easiest just to copy and paste my last message here:
This is my FIFTH message. I understand you're an online only company but you have had my money since 21.05. That is now nearly 2 months ago. I should be able to phone you, as out of all my messages, I have only received one response. That was on 27.06 which in itself was over 1 month after my order. All that message said was 'I can see it's been dispatched so it should reach you soon'. I still don't have it. The fact that I have no one to speak to about sorting this out is ridiculous. It wouldn't be so bad if I was getting proactive responses to my messages. All this in my personal time as I'm extremely busy with my own work. I know it's only £12.95, but it's the principal. Yodel has clearly lost this parcel. Please look at the tracking link. I want those 2 bags of compost asap please.

Order number ******* I am a retired Sister and love my garden. I was looking forward to a blaze of colour. I'm sorry I read the reviews only after delivery. The Salvia 'Love and kisses' may survive with care. Otherwise, Lavandula Blue Scent and Cottage Garden pinks and Pink kisses in' bud and bloom' were also post-flowering and need deadheading. No flowering this year and certainly not worth planting. Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow distorted by a plastic bag of dead premium variety dalia collection bear root bulbs. I will contact the company, but based on their reviews of customer care and returns, I do not expect a positive response. I will not be returning at my expense. DPD transport is dreadful. I'm unable to upload photos on my phone to the desktop.

I bought a bare-root rose from Gardening Express earlier this year, which failed to grow and is now completely dead. I was reassured it was covered under their Bare Root Guarantee until the end of July. Despite contacting them multiple times with all the required information and photos, I've been completely ignored. They no longer reply to emails and have failed to honour their own guarantee. Very disappointed in both the quality of the plant and the lack of customer service. I will not be ordering from Gardening Express again.

This company appears to be trying play my dad for a fool. He ordered some plants (30/04/2025) which arrived almost a month later (23/05/2025) in terrible, unacceptable, shape. Decide for yourself whether this is "express". Messages between them are ongoing, despite evidence provided, and no refund in sight on 19/6/2025

Plants ordered easily, they took roughly 2 weeks to arrive (as indicated). Unfortunately, the packaging was an oversized, ripped cardboard box with 2 plants inside. The box ripped in transit (we assume), and was clearly battered. The plants inside were on top of each other with broken stalks, and we do not believe that - even with proper care- they will survive.
We contacted customer service for a resolution (we simply wanted the plants replaced by healthy plants). Levi responded and was pleasant and apologetic (except for insisting that the plants ought to survive with proper care, which was a little insulting to gardeners with more than half a century of experience), but entirely without any decision making ability beyond a £10 partial refund. This means that we are left with plants which are unlikely to bloom in future, and have paid handsomely for the privilege of nursing them to a fairly certain future (the rubbish bin).
Several issues:
-1. Packaging was not suitable. The box was far too big, and poorly constructed. We have regularly ordered from other sites (eg. Farmer Gracy) and have come to expect reasonably robust packaging.
-2. The courier service (Yodel) clearly didn't take the necessary care of the package, and allowed the plants to be tossed around in the back of a van, possibly upside down, resulting in a completely torn box and broken plants.
-3. The customer service agent needs to be empowered to replace plants like-for-like in events like this. We didn't want a refund. We wanted healthy plants. We would have accepted a full refund, but this was not forthcoming either. As it is, we have paid for shoddy products and service. Very, very poor.

There plants are only fit for the compost heapI received my plant order from Gardening Express. Today and to say that the plants were only fit for the compost heap will be an under statement!
As you can see on the photos, the three poppy plants are half dead And the climber plant is definitely dead.
I am very disappointed and upset as this will be my first and last order if this is condition that plants out in.

Truly appalled by the exceptionally…
Truly appalled by the exceptionally poor service received.
In 2023 I added some hydrangeas to a large border in my garden and this year decided to add more, 2 months ago I ordered exactly the same colour and variety and it arrived 2 weeks later and was subsequently planted. I decided 3 weeks ago to add 1 more- same colour and variety of hydrangea at a cost of £39.99, as well as ordering other items.

The plant arrived yesterday, rather than being a dark ruby red it was pink, the leaves were also a different colour to my other hydrangeas, when I looked at the pot there was no label and the pot was different to the one my previous labelled hydrangea came in.

I immediately contacted the company, sending photos of planted bed, last months order and yesterdays received order and both pots.

Either the person in CS doesn't bother to read complaints or can't understand English.

They have said there is nothing wrong as the pot photo shows the correct item...durrr... obviously not bothered to read, and they have sent me a form to fill in to return the plant at MY EXPENSE...

This year alone I have seen around £600 with GE and only today noticed there is no telephone number to call to discuss
Date of experience: 05 July 2024

Will never buy from this company again. If you have a problem there is no way to contact them by phone. There is a web contact but it does not allow you to describe the problem, it simply asks you to send photos. I sent photos and they wrote back saying 'plants are fine'. I emailed by return to say 'they are not', but received no acknowledgement. We bought 6 trees from this company, they packed three trees in a box which should have have been used for two. The third pot was jammed above and between the two lower tree pots, forcing the tree trunks to lean out and weaken their attachment to their roots. We now have two trees with a lovely upright stance and four which lean quite strongly and will not stand up straight. I guess we will need to try and stake them but this should not have been needed and is far from ideal. Clearly they have a penny pinching culture which puts profit way ahead of the quality of their plants or the service they provide to their customers. They also effectively block any feedback about their service. Awful company.

Ordered 10 houseleeks and when they arrived the box was wet and open in the corner with soil coming out and the leeks were all smashed up they had put 10 9cm pots on top of each other which meant the ones on the bottom are going to suffer straight off and thats before the couriers had chucked them around i literally had to scrap together what bits i could plant to hope they would survive had to bin the rest.I complained and sent pics but they wanted pics of every pot and plant so no refund given as they were in the bin wont be using them again.

I haven't got what I ordered. Delivery was done in 2 dispatches and took weeks Frankly it's crap!. The delivered products are disappointing. I feel totally conned. I bought a way better value indoor plant from IKEA. No doubt I'll have fun and games either getting my money back or getting what I want. I'll re rate them if they step up to the mark and put this right.

Shockingly bad company! Disingenuous: promising no quibble 14 day refund, if not satisfied is a blatant lie. Despite complaining about the very small, poor quality plants I received, and sending them photos, I have just been fobbed off and refused either a refund or replacement. Avoid like the plague!

Poor communication, even worse descriptions and diabolical customer service.
Plants delivered damaged or as just a pot of dirt. They do not cover expensive postage for returns

Ordered a few plants and majority were of good size and were healthy. One, however, was not fit for the bin. I complained with photographic evidence and was fobbed off with a story that basically it will grow when planted! Ridiculous

12.12.23
After over 2 wks of wait the order has finally arrived witH more than a half missing. Dispatch email does not mention that something would be missing neither I've been contacted to be informed of this. Plants are not in a rip top condition at all. Leaves are falling and they won't survive till even Christmas. I wish I never found this place. It has caused nothing but headaches and im not even seeing the end of it as now I have to chase either missing items or my money since I paid for it. I would have never paid £6.99 delivery if I knew I will receive only £1x4 plants which I can get in any supermarket for the same price. Most important items on the order were the ones they never sent. I do not believe for a second in the only one having issues with these horrible people and I'm certain all reviews are fake left by employees. If I could give minus 10 stars I would. I'm going to report GE to trading standards.

Ps. I'm sure any positive reviews are fake. It's interesting that 5* suddenly started to pop up once I left 1star. Fake fake. Will report to TP

And I didn't order house plants I ordered plants for Christmas which obviously won't arrive for the house decoration. Again full blown ignorance to emails. Nothing is in junk stop your lies. I hope everyone reads reviews before proceeding giving up their money for you a compete waste of space business. Disgusting

Update: 7th of December and still no news of items being dispatched. This is something unheard off.

A week and I heard nothing from this company about where is my order, when it will be shipped etc. it's a pure scam.
Have to contact bank to get my money back now. Nobody responds to emails either. Should have read reviews first

I recently purchased the following items from the Gardening Express sale: Colourful Garden Mum Chrysanthemums, Fargesia 'Asian Wonder' - Red Dragon Clumping Umbrella Bamboo, and Maranta Fascinator - Prayer Plant, totaling £47.93. Unfortunately, I found them to be noticeably smaller and of lower quality than expected, and in my opinion, not worth the sale price. Despite reaching out via email to request a return and refund, I have not received a response.

We bought a pair of trees for either side of our front door one of the trees was a bit sparse when we unpacked it,we thought that we would give it time to bush out as it was a young tree,the tree continued to deteriorate so we contacted Gardening Express what a waste of time that was no help whatsoever last time we will be using them and we will be leaving reviews everywhere as we are on several Gardening forums.If you are considering purchasing from this company I would reconsider as the customer service is non existent. You have been warned...

Have been waiting for a month for my delivery. Difficult to check as no contact details are provided on their website or invoice.

I will not be using them again.

Shocking Service. Don't use Gardening Express.

1. We ordered 5 plants. One was too small and not the size ordered. Two were half dead. One had been savaged by slugs/snails.
2. Gardening Express completely ignored our emails and instagram messages to let them know about the order. No response to date and we received the plants over 4 weeks ago.
3. No customer service at all.

Really disappointed with Gardening Express.

Sadly I read a 5 star review before placing an order with this company, please don't make the same mistake.
On 15 Sept 2023 I placed an order for £1200 and of the 26 Photinia plants received, ALL were diseased. Not just the odd spot of fungal infection, but ALL leaves on ALL the plants. Gardening Express do not have a customer contact telephone line….so I sent a polite email, with photos, awaited a response, sent another 7 days later….and then I received a 'How Did We Do?' Customer Survey, but no reply. Obviously I will be taking this further as we had to save up to buy these plants and cannot afford to replace them now. Beyond heartbroken and feeling very foolish to have trusted this company.

Two large ugly brown nodes where branches were cut off (on a cheese plant my sister gave me for my birthday). And their reply is that things happen during transit and it will recover. Also two tall branches and then nothing in middle and then a few really short ones. Nothing like the pictures on their website, nobody would have bought this plant in a shop. But they refuse to pay for return. And we can't submit a review on their website probably cos of our low rating so their 4 plus stars is a fake.